Biopharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Evelo Biosciences – Julie Carretero was named chief people officer at Evelo Biosciences, Inc. Carretero will assume leadership responsibilities for people initiatives, including talent acquisition and employee development. Carretero joins Evelo from FXI Corporation, a private equity held manufacturing company, where she served as chief human resources officer since 2018Prior to FXI, she served in roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
EQRx – Cambridge, Mass.-based EQRx made four key executive appointments. Rona Anhalt was named CPO, Christian Antoni was named chief development officer, Eric Hendrick was named chief physician officer and Daniel Hoey was named chief of technical operations. Sir Andrew Dillon, former chief executive officer of The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), joins as an EQRx advisor. Prior to joining EQRx, Anhalt was corporate vice president of human resources at Celgene. Antoni joins EQRx from LEO Pharma, where he served as senior vice president of global development. Hedrick previously served as chief advisor to BeiGene and chief medical officer at both Epizyme and Pharmacyclics. Hoey joins from Teva Pharmaceuticals, where he led global supply chain operations, driving the transformation of one of the industry’s largest and most complex global pharmaceutical supply chains focused on patient-centric healthcare solutions.
Straton Therapeutics – Keith Darragh was named chief financial officer of Straton Therapeutics, Inc. Darragh is the former CFO of Pharmacosmos Therapeutics Inc. and Eleison Pharmaceuticals LLC, where he led finance, administration, supply chain, and information technology and established the financial infrastructure to support clinical program advancement and product launch preparation.
Enosi Life Sciences – James N. Woody was named executive chairman of Enosi Life Sciences. Woody led the Centocor team that developed Remicade, the first tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor biologic. Woody also served as the CEO of MaraBio Systems, Chairman of the Board of Viracta Therapeutics, General Partner of Latterell Venture Partners, founding president and CEO of OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, president and General Manager of Roche Biosciences and chief scientific officer of Centocor.
Synlogic – David Hava was named CSO of Synlogic. He will provide strategic leadership to the research organization and build Synlogic’s portfolio of research partners. He previously served as CSO at
Rhythm Pharmaceuticals – Yann Mazabraud was tapped to serve as Head of International at Rhythm. Mazabraud will lead Rhythm’s international operations. Mazabraud joins Rhythm from Trevi Therapeutics, where he served as chief commercial officer and Head of International for the last two years. Prior to that, he held several leadership positions at Sanofi Genzyme, including, Head of Latin America, U.S. General Manager and North America Head, Rare Diseases. Current CCO Nithya Desikan is leaving the company to explore other opportunities.
miRagen Therapeutics – Lee Rauch, the current COO for miRagen Therapeutics, was promoted to president and CEO. She was also appointed to serve on the company’s board of directors. Rauch joined the company as COO in June and has held various executive positions at Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT), Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Nuon Therapeutics and COR Therapeutics.
vTv Therapeutics– Edward P. Taibi was appointed to the company board of directors. Taibi has gained extensive business leadership experience over the course of his sixteen-year tenure at holding company MacAndrews.
Immatics N.V. – Eliot Forster, the current CEO of F-Star Therapeutics, was named to the board of directors of Immatics N.V. Prior to F-Star, he was the CEO of Creabilis Therapeutics and Solace Pharmaceuticals Inc. Forster’s other previous positions include Head of Development and Operations for the EU and Asia at Pfizer and founding Chairman of MedCity.
Rain Therapeutics – Rain cofounder Robert Doebele was named CSO of the company. He is transitioning into a full time role from his position as chair of the scientific advisory board and acting CSO since Rain’s founding. Prior to joining Rain full time, Doebele served as associate professor of medicine in the division of medical oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, director of the Thoracic Oncology Research Initiative at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and as principle investigator for the University of Colorado Lung Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence.
Rockwell Medical -- of Russell L. Skibsted was named CFO and CBO of Rockwell Medical, Inc. In this new role, Skibsted will be responsible for business development, financial operations and investor relations for the company and will oversee the Finance and Accounting, Legal and Compliance, and Human Resources and Administration functions. Prior to joining Rockwell, he served as CFO of AgeX Therapeutics and before that, served as CFO of BioTime, Inc.
Tizona Therapeutics – Christine O’Brien was named CEO of Tizona. O’Brien previously held the position of COO. O’Brien joined Tizona in 2015 and led the cross-functional execution of the company’s portfolio and operating plan.
Partner Therapeutics – Edwin Rock was tapped to serve as CMO. He will oversee clinical development activities for PTx, as well as serve on the Company’s executive leadership team. Most recently, he was Clinical Project Leader and Vice President of Clinical Research at MacroGenics. Before that, he served as Executive Director at Astex Pharmaceuticals. He also held roles of increasing responsibility at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization and GlaxoSmithKline.
Alveo Technologies – Fran Soistman joined the scientific advisory board of Alveo Technologies. In his most recent role, Soistman served as the executive vice president for Aetna, a CVS Health company.
Adverum Biotechnologies – Christopher J. Morrison was named head of process development for Adverum Biotechnologies. Most recently, he worked with ApicBio Therapeutics as senior director, biopharmaceutical development. Previously, he worked with Gemini Therapeutics as senior director, CMC operations. Earlier, he worked with Voyager Therapeutics, serving as director, biopharmaceutical development, promoted from associate director, head of process development.
Element Science – Zubin J. Eapen was named CMO of Element Science. Most recently, Eapen served as CMO of The Anthem Companies’ CareMore Health subsidiary. He also served as CMO at Anthem’s research subsidiary, HealthCore, where he oversaw all clinical research including traditional randomized clinical trials and pragmatic clinical trials. Previously, at the Duke University Health System, he founded and served as Medical Director of the Duke Heart Failure Same Day Access Program, a novel disease management program.
Novus Therapeutics – Following the completion of the acquisition of Anelixis Therapeutics, Inc., Novus Therapeutics has new leadership. David-Alexandre “DA” C. Gros will served as CEO. He joins Novus from Imbria Pharmaceuticals Inc. Prior to Imbria, Gros was president and COO of Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., CBO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and CSO of Sanofi, S.A. Steven Perrin, founder and CEO of Anelixis, will take on the role of president and chief scientific officer. Perrin held R&D positions at the Hoechst-Ariad Genomics Center, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Biogen Idec, Inc.
Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio) – Kellie Sears was named CHRO at Asklepios Biopharmaceutical. She joins AskBio from Allergan, where she served as interim chief human resources officer, and will have responsibility for all aspects of human capital management, including talent acquisition and administration, leadership development, compensation and benefits, and diversity and inclusion. She also held various HR roles from 2012 through 2014 with Forest Laboratories prior to its acquisition by Allergan.
Cygnal Therapeutics – John A. Wagner was named CMO of Cygnal Therapeutics. He is the first executive to take the role of CMO at Cygnal, where he will be a key contributor to the company’s scientific strategy and oversee its translation into medicines. Wagner joins Cygnal most recently from Foresite Capital, where he was a venture partner. Prior to Foresite, he served as senior vice president and head of translational research and early clinical at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He also spent a number of years at Merck in various leadership roles and has served as a senior consultant to the National Academy of Science at the Institute of Medicine.
OneOncology --OneOncology, the national partnership of independent oncology practices, today added two new senior healthcare executives to its leadership team with the appointment of Janice Baker as CHRO and Jon Billington as CFO. Baker was the head of Human Resources at Envision Healthcare and before that, she was the Human Resources Director for Accuray. Billington was the CFO for US Acute Care Solutions.
Century Therapeutics – Michael C. Diem was named CBO of Century Therapeutics. Diem has more than 15 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industries and nearly 10 years of experience in academic and clinical medicine. Most recently, Diem was head of Corporate and Business Development at Amicus Therapeutics. He also held similar roles at other leading pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline.
Revitope Oncology – Carsten Reinhardt, Managing Director and chief development officer of Immatics Biotechnologies, was added to the board of directors of Revitope Oncology. He served as CMO of Micromet before Immatics.
Seer –Catherine Freidman was named to the board of directors of Seer. Friedman held numerous executive positions during a 23-year investment banking career with Morgan Stanley, including Managing Director, Head of West Coast Healthcare, and Co-Head of the Biotechnology Practice. She currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of GRAIL, and is a member of the boards of directors of Altaba (formerly Yahoo!), Radius Health and Lyell Immunopharma. Mark McClellan has stepped down from the board.
Immunome – Michael Diamond, Jeffrey Henderson, Shmuel Shoham and Susan Weiss were named to the newly-created COVID-19 Advisory Board at Immunome. Diamond is the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine and a Professor of Molecular Microbiology and of Pathology and Immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine. Henderson is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology at Washington University at St. Louis. Shoham is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Weiss is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a Co-Director at the Penn Center for Research on Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens.
NASP -- The National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) awarded Rick Miller, BSPharm the Distinguished Service Award, which is given to the individual who has made a sustained contribution to leadership within NASP and the specialty pharmacy industry. Miller is vice president of clinical and professional services at AllianceRx Walgreens Prime.
Venatorx Pharmaceuticals – Will Sargent joined the company as head of commercial strategy. Sargent will be responsible for designing and executing Venatorx’s commercial strategy across its portfolio of clinical and preclinical antibacterial and antiviral programs. Prior to joining Venatorx, Sargent served as head Commercial Strategy at Nabriva. Before that, he held a variety of leadership roles at Auxilium Pharmaceuticals.
Jaguar Health – Bay Area-based Jaguar Health formed a scientific strategy team to support the company’s recently launched mental health Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative. The scientific strategy team includes Michael J. Balick, a research associate of the Brain Chemistry Labs of the Institute of EthnoMedicine; Thomas Carlson, a member of Jaguar’s original scientific advisory team; Pravin Chaturvedi, chair of the SAB for Napo Pharmaceuticals and the acting CSO for Jaguar; Stephen Dahmer; Wade Davis; Elain Elisabetsky; Maurice Iwu; Steven R. King; Charles Limbach and David Sesin.
VectivBio AG – Nader N. Youssef was appointed senior vice president and head of global clinical development and medical affairs. Youssef, most recently served as vice president of clinical development at Passage Bio and chief medical officer at Nutrinia.
InflaRx – Thomas Taapken joined InflaRx as CFO. Jordan Zwick has been promoted to Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to joining InflaRx, Taapken was Executive Chairman at Imcyse SA in Belgium, where he now serves as chairman of the Board. Zwick has served as head of business development and corporate strategy.
Cue Biopharma – Tamar Howson was named to the board of directors of Cue Biopharma. Howson currently serves on the board of directors of MEI Pharma, Inc. and Immunic, Inc.
Veralox Therapeutics – Alex Martin was named chairman of the board of directors for Veralox. He is currently the CEO of Palladio Biosciences and was previously CEO of Realm Therapeutics. He has held executive roles at biopharmaceutical companies including Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT) as COO and BioXell as CFO.
CorMedix – Paulo F. Costa was named to the board of directors. Costa currently serves as chairman of the board of MacroGenics. He served as chairman of Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his retirement, Costa served in senior leadership roles at Novartis, including president and CEO of Novartis US Corporation and president and CEO of Novartis Pharmaceutica US and Head of Americas. Prior to joining Novartis, Costa spent 30 years at Johnson & Johnson including as President of Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc.
